The only problem was he didn't have the cars - that was until he stole a £110,000 Bentley Armage from outside a hotel in Bournemouth and bought a stolen £38,000 Mercedes for "a couple of hundred quid", Reading Crown Court heard.

Judge Charles Elly jailed the 27-year-old for a year on Friday.

Prosecutor Kim Preston told Reading Crown Court that a businessman, Mr Millward, had borrowed the new Bentley from a Manchester dealership and parked it outside the Royal Bath Hotel in Bournemouth on May 5, last year.

The keys were left in the hotel porter's cupboard but the car was stolen just after 6pm, she said.

Miss Preston said police traced its movements back to Reading and over the next few days it was left parked outside flats at Artillery Mews in Tilehurst Road and at a lock-up garage.

During that time new number plates were put on it.

Police seized it and discovered almost £5,000 worth of damage had been caused when the Bentley's tracking equipment was ripped out, said Miss Preston.

Canlin had previously stayed at the Royal Bath Hotel with his partner and was seen and recognised by staff, Miss Preston said.

Police later tracked down Canlin and arrested him.

"It is the Crown's case that it was not a spur of the moment decision," Miss Preston said.

"He had recently started up a website for a chauffeuring business and on it was a photo of a Bentley with blanked out number plates and a Mercedes."

Canlin initially denied stealing the car and told police he had rented it from a Mr Edwards for £500 a week and was testing the market to see if he should buy one himself. But he later admitted in Reading Crown Court on Monday, May 19, that he had stolen it.

Later that month a £38,000 Mercedes was stolen from a driveway in Reading and sold to Canlin 15 minutes later for "a couple of hundred pounds", she added.

Canlin, of Sibson, Lower Earley, admitted stealing the Bentley and a set of number plates stolen from a car at Reading railway station and handling the stolen Mercedes.

James Cartwright, defending, said Canlin denied going to the hotel planning to steal the Bentley.

The keys were left in the car, Mr Cartwright said, and Canlin, being a lover of cars, "simply could not resist getting into it and driving it away".

Since his arrest last year, Canlin had been trying to go straight and was working delivering and valeting cars for two Reading companies, he said.

Judge Charles Elly said he accepted Canlin did not plan to steal the Bentley although once he returned to Reading he was going to keep it "long term".